Large broad-scale programs that change particular aspects of the operation of a corporation pose significant challenges especially for those corporations that are geographically dispersed and functionally heterogenous. Change is an inevitable aspect of growth, but change must be implemented in a controlled fashion with minimal impact to production and throughput.
In many organizations, rather than micro-managing the change programs high in the organizational hierarchy, the responsibility is delegated down the chain of command. Downward delegation of the change oversight responsibility has many negative side-effects. First, major differences in regional policies may emerge. Second, decentralized change oversight can result in redundancies and inefficiencies. Even more importantly, decentralized change oversight may disadvantageously remove the organization's capability to manage costs, schedules, and resources globally across the entire organization.
Known project management methodologies provide substantial value in managing change at a micro-level. Some project management programs such as Microsoft Project™, Computer Associate's Super Project™, and SAP™, attempt to integrate projects to produce a consolidated view. However, these programs are very limited. By far, the most restrictive feature of conventional project management programs requires all participating business units to use identical project management methodology, often with identically defined parameters. In the real world, such limitations are impractical and difficult to implement for an international organization of any meaningful size. Furthermore, such restrictions would be useless for consolidating the management of programs of existing projects.